The Texans won’t make the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. Also, they have again finished with a losing record against their AFC South rivals and will remain a sub-.500 team on the road, no matter what happens in Oakland Sunday.

None of that sounds worthy of applause, much less a standing ovation. But, because sports tend to be a what-have-you-done-for-us-lately business, it still feels right to be genuinely excited about where the Texans are today after a franchise-high-water-mark victory over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday extended their longest-ever winning streak to four games.

They key words of late? Consistency and confidence. The former begets the latter.

“We’ve just been very consistent in what we’re doing,” head coach Gary Kubiak said Monday. “All the games we’ve played in the last month have looked much the same. We’ve protected the ball better than we did earlier in the season, and we’re making plays in crunch time. That’s the difference in winning and losing in this league.”

As satisfying as beating the Browns, Jaguars and the Packers had been, holding off the previously 12-1 Titans represented the Texans’ longest stride yet. They realize their biggest hurdle going forward is finding a way to level the playing field with Tennessee and Indianapolis, who have won a combined 24 of 28 meetings.

Their reality is this, Kubiak said: “You’re not going to get out of this division without having one heck of a year.”

Two defining games

So the 2008 season will be best remembered for how the Texans seemingly had the Colts buried 27-10 before self-destructing late on three turnovers by backup quarterback Sage Rosenfels, and how they refused to blink against the Titans, clinging to a 13-12 victory.

Two very critical, very winnable games, one of which they actually won.

“We’re going to have to continue to grow and (that means) playing better within our division,” Kubiak conceded. “Those teams aren’t going (to regress) anytime soon. It’s important for the confidence of our group that they were able to get it done yesterday against this very good football team as it moves forward. In this business, when you find a way to win two, three, four in a row, you gain some confidence in what you’re doing.”

It has been a season of streaks. That crushing four-game skid at the outset — which included losses to Tennessee and Indianapolis — left the Texans in a deep hole. Three successive wins showed they had a pulse. Three more defeats effectively ensured the season wouldn’t end with a playoff appearance. Now, four straight victories have revived hope for 2009.

A fresh start

The Texans have looked so solid in beating Cleveland, Jacksonville, Green Bay and Tennessee that Kubiak barely remembers how dreadfully the season began, especially for quarterback Matt Schaub, who threw five interceptions in his first two starts in large part because he was sacked eight times by Pittsburgh and Tennessee, currently the No. 1 and No. 3 defenses in the NFL, respectively.

Asked how worried he was about Schaub at that juncture, Kubiak said: “That’s so long ago. I don’t know that I talked to him any different. I expect so much of Matt, which you all well know. I want him to be a great player, not a good player. So, I’m very difficult on him from that standpoint. He’s hard on himself too.

“It (was a concern) for all of us because obviously we didn’t play good in those games. We kind of go as he goes, but the one thing that he’s done is he’s continued to battle.”

Just as Schaub was rounding into form, he missed a month with a knee injury, but he appears to have profited from the layoff. His arm is fresh and his head clear. Further, rookie Steve Slaton’s emergence as a big-time NFL running back and the Texans’ defensive renaissance have taken much of the weight off the quarterback’s shoulders.

“We’ve talked on other Mondays about how (Slaton) actually gets stronger as the game goes on,” Kubiak said. “Good teams find a way. When you’re trying to close the game out and everybody knows you want to run it to close the game out, you find a way to do it.”

Stingy defense

As for the defense, by forcing turnovers — 11 over the 4-0 run, compared to only nine in the first 10 games — and tackling better, it has become considerably more stingy in allowing points (Fewer turnovers by the offense has been a major boon, too.) Houston’s first four opponents scored 130, the last four just 56.

“Have we been more aggressive? Yes, we have,” Kubiak said. “But we also been more consistent in our play and more consistent with the people we’ve had on the field.”